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Delia's favourite soups: Super bowl!
Soups fit the bill (or should that be bowl?) at any time of the year, from an easy way to up your vegetable intake with Watercress Soup and wonderful new Spinach Soup with Fontina to the chilled soups of summer and warming winter sustenance.. In recognition of this, Delia has produced a book, The Delia Collection: Soups, which should be on the bookshelf of anyone who enjoys nutritious home-made soup.
Click here to buy The Delia Collection: Soups at a great price
Carrot and Coriander Soup
This is a lovely soup to make with spring carrots that are not quite as sweet as those in the summer. Coriander is said to have the flavour of roasted orange peel, which makes the two perfect partners. Serve the soup with plenty of warm crusty bread.
Asparagus Soup
This elegant soup is perfect to make when asparagus comes into season in spring. It can be served hot or very well chilled.
Watercress and Buttermilk Vichyssoise
This is a very summery, cool soup. The peppery, green watercress leaves are matched perfectly by the soothing acidity of buttermilk. It must be served very cold.
Spinach Soup with Fontina
We think Italian Fontina cheese, which has a melting creaminess, is the best to use in this soup but if it's hard to find, Gruyère is equally good.
Goulash Soup with Dumplings
I've always loved the goulash flavours of beef, tomatoes and spicy paprika and this soup is certainly a great 'winter warmer'. In fact, it's a meal in a bowl so no need for a main course, just some bread and cheese to follow.
Seafood and Coconut Laksa
This Malaysian-influenced recipe was given to me by Sarah Randell, the Editor of the Collection. She says you can make it using ready-made laksa paste but that it is infinitely better if you make it yourself.
La Potee (French Farmhouse Soup with Bacon, Sausage and Beans)
This is a traditional French farmhouse soup or potée that is really a sort of cross between a soup and a stew and makes a meal in itself. If you have a ridged griddle, it's nice to serve chargrilled French country bread or, failing that, some warm sourdough bread.
Leek, Onion and Potato Soup
This is my most favourite soup in the world and now we can buy extremely good mashed potato frozen it means we can be a little bit more spontaneous about the whole process of soup making. Potato ready-mashed with stock added makes an excellent backdrop to other ingredients, spinach for instance or watercress, but as I said leeks are my top of the pops in soups.
Libyan Soup with Couscous
This recipe first appeared in The Food Aid Cookery Book, published in 1986, and was contributed by Mary El-Rayes. It's a truly wonderful soup, meaty with lots of fragrant flavour, and perfect for serving on a really cold day with pitta bread warm from the oven.
Wild Mushroom and Walnut Soup
Walnuts are at their best at Christmas time and, together with some dried wild mushrooms, can be used to make an unusual soup for a dinner party or a warming lunch or supper snack with some good cheese to follow.
Soupe Flamande with Creme Fraiche and Frizzled Sprouts
Like parsnips and celery, sprouts also heighten considerably in flavour after a hard frost. I like to cut them on the whole stalk and leave them attached outside the kitchen door so I can just pick off a few as and when I need them.
Roasted Tomato Soup with Purée of Basil and Olive Croutons
When you oven roast tomatoes, something magical happens, the flavour is concentrated and the toasted edges also give a lovely flavour, making this the best tomato soup recipe ever.
Chestnut Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons
A bone from a baked ham makes a superlative stock for a number of soups (such as lentil or split pea), but it also helps to make the very best chestnut soup of all.
Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Sweetcorn
This is a very fine combination: the soft, velvety texture of the pumpkin makes the soup deliciously creamy and the toasted sweetcorn provides contrasting flavour and some crunch.
Chickpea, Chilli and Coriander Soup
This has decidedly Mexican overtones. It isn't too hot and spicy but the presence of the chilli does give it a nice kick, and the flavour and texture of chickpeas is perfect for soup.
Tuscan Bean and Pasta Soup
This is a big, hefty soup, perfect for the winter months with a light main course to follow. Alternatively, it is a complete lunch, with just some cheese and a salad after it.
Ajo Blanco (Chilled Almond Soup)
My friend Neville, who has a house in Andalusia surrounded by almond trees, gave me this supremely wonderful recipe for Chilled Almond Soup, generously laced with garlic, that is made by the locals who live there. You can make it up to five days ahead; as Neville says, it goes on improving in flavour.
Watercress Soup
Watercress is a star performer in so many ways. I love the fat green luxurious leaves in salads, sprinkled with rock salt in sandwiches, in sauce and perhaps most of all in soup.
Smoked Bacon and Lentil Soup
This is a very substantial soup, best made with whole lentils which are a greeny brown colour and don't need any soaking.
French Onion Soup
There are few things more comforting than making a real French Onion Soup – slowly cooked, caramelised onions that turn mellow and sweet in a broth laced with white wine and Cognac. The whole thing is finished off with crunchy baked croutons of crusty bread topped with melted, toasted cheese. If ever there was a winter stomach warmer, this is surely it!
Cauliflower Soup with Roquefort
This is a truly sublime soup, as the cauliflower and Roquefort seem to meld together so well, but I have also tried it with mature Cheddar, and I'm sure it would be good with any cheese you happen to have handy.
Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup with Parsnip Crisps
This is such a lovely soup. The sweetness of the parsnips is sharpened by the presence of the apple, and the subtle flavour of the spices comes through beautifully.
Slow-cooked Root Vegetable Soup
Something happens to vegetables when they're cooked very slowly for a long time: their flavour becomes mellow but at the same time more intense, and your kitchen is filled with aromas of goodness. This soup is also completely fat-free.
Celery Soup with Blue Cheese
This is really good made with a creamy blue cheese like the Irish Cashel Blue, but if you can't get hold of that a blue Wensleydale would also be good.
Polish Beetroot Soup
Beetroot is either loved or hated – mostly the latter I suspect, because in this country people have a surfeit of it doused in strong vinegar. But its lovers know of its earthy charm and delicious but distinctive flavour.
Carrot and Artichoke Soup
I love serving this, one of my most favourite soups. First, it has an extremely rich, beautiful colour, almost saffron I would say. And second, people can never quite guess what it is. Jerusalem artichokes don't look user-friendly, but once you've cut off and discarded all the knobbly bits, the flavour is quite outstanding.
Chilled Spanish Gazpacho
This is a truly beautiful soup for serving ice-cold during the summer and it's particularly refreshing if we're lucky enough to have hot weather. However, please don't attempt to make it in the winter as the flavourless imported salad vegetables will not do it justice.
